Transmission Pan Gasket Leak.

February 15 2012 at 8:18 AM

Resson. (no login) from IP address 70.23.75.33

I am trying to stop a transmission pan drip/leak on a 1974 Ford C6 Transmission, it appears someone at sometime tried to drain the pan by removing about 14 rear and middle bolts and only partially loosening two or three of the front bolts (near the torque converter). They still could not lower the rear of the pan to drain the fluid, so then they tried to tap the rear of the pan flange (in between the pan mounting bolts) with a hammer to seperate the transmission to pan gasket, but the pan was obviously still stuck to the transmission, so they hit it with the hammer again. So the pan had a small dent where it was tapped with the hammer and I had the dent on the (pan) flange straightened out, a couple of weeks ago when i had the pan removed, (When i say the flange i mean the top flat part of the pan that connects the pan gasket to the transmission, between the transmission pan bolt holes). A new gasket was installed, the bolts were tightened, the fluid was added to the transmission, we checked to see if it was still leaking and it was not. About four days later i noticed a small leak/drip under the transmission again, in the same place as before, it was still leaking at the rear of the pan flange, but it was a slower leak this time, (but it should not be leaking at all). I won't have time to remove the pan again for a week or two, to check if the the (Transmission Flange) has a small dent where the drip is located, I thought the mechanic checked this already but he obviously did not notice it the first time. So my question is: Is this Aluminum (Tranmission) pan flange area easily dented on these transmissions, when they are tapped or hit with a hammer? (I was not there when it was hit with the hammer, so i don't know how hard it was hit). Could it have a small crack or fracture from the hit? Would i be able to fill in the dent or crack/fracture with some type of gasket sealer? Is this a common problem, since most of these factory pans did not come with a drain Plug/Bolt to drain the pan?